I've always tried to be a 'pay it forward' person. Sometimes I don't try hard enough but at least I always try.
Big Lots is one of my favorite places to shop. The stores in Georgia were always a jumbled up mess and usually located in a not so nice strip mall but could always find some really good bargains there.
No different here.
Massey and I googled "Closest Big Lots" shortly after moving here. It only takes about ten minutes to get there, is located in a horribly run down strip mall with the worst parking lot I've ever seen. It has more ruts and holes than parking spaces, and there are a lot of parking spaces. Also located in the strip mall is a "Cuban Hair Salon."
I don't know what that even means unless it means they give you a cut and a cigar.
(updated)
Actually went back today and took some pictures...my memory failed me (Doesn't happen often, my brother calls me RainWoman).
Still...what is a Dominican style hair do?
On Monday I worked an opening lunch shift. I got off around two and headed to the bank. I made a $400 deposit then headed to Big Lots and picked up a couple of plant stands for all the booming plants I now have and some plant food spikes. My plants which were almost dead by the time they made it out of the moving van have thrived like crazy in the Florida sunshine and have more than I've ever had. Once flower blooms fall off, dry them and replant the seeds from the center of the dried flower in yet another pot. In less than a week, I have sprouts. The plant I had in my bathroom back home in Georgia had been barely hanging on, for going on fifteen years. It's now on my back porch and growing like a weed on steroids. I've been very stringent on watering them all since winters are dry here and turning the pots once a week to let both sides enjoy the eastern sunrise from our back porch.
From dried flower seeds to sprouts in less than a week!
I checked out at Big Lots and took my three items home. I hung a fern in a new basket, re potted another "plant gone wild" in a bigger pot and started yet another with seeds in the smaller one.
Did some laundry, sweep up all the tile floors and heated leftovers for dinner. I was off the next day so went absolutely nowhere...my favorite way to spend a day off.
Massey is dog sitting for my brother who is out of town for a week and came over for dinner last night.
The forecast mentioned low temps in the forties so brought all my smaller potted plants inside. Waste of time, it only got down to forty seven.
Tonight was expected to fall into the thirties so didn't take any chances and brought all ten plants in from outside before leaving for work around four thirty...just in case.
I got to work and discovered didn't have my trusty server book.
It's not only my server book but serves as my wallet as well. I don't go anywhere without it. I keep my drivers license, credit cards and bank card in it. I called Tim as soon as I got to work, he was on his way home from work and asked him if he would bring it to me? Good ole Lumpy Rutherford aka Jed Clampett aka Tim aka my husband said "Sure".
It also holds my favorite pen, favorite writing pad, notes I've made about menu items and and a thirty dollar bank I use for making change.
I'm an anal server, don't know if I could make it through a shift without my essential server book.
He called me thirty minutes later and said he couldn't find it anywhere. The tiny temp rental house we're in doesn't have too many places to hide things.
I went back to my car to see if I'd overlooked it.
Nope.
I started to get worried.
Then I started to get really worried.
Then I started thinking about that four hundred dollars I'd deposited into my bank account and that Kohls card with the balance fully paid and a six hundred dollar limit free to use.
I called Tim again and we went back over where I was the last time I remembered having it.
Could I have really left it at the 'all too sketchy' Big Lots in the seemingly ghetto strip mall??
"Yikes" was a complete and total understatement.
Just like Tim and I both tend to do when at a loss, he called Massey.
She googled and called the sketchy Big Lots here in Orlando.
Can you believe it?
They had my server book!
By this point had already checked my bank account to make sure my money wasn't gone and checked my Kohl's account to make sure someone hadn't walked out with six hundred dollars worth of stuff.
Tim went by there, picked it up and brought it to me at work.
Tim said he was a little worried because they didn't even ask him for ID when picking it up and to check and make sure everything was there.
It was.
Even my thirty dollar cash bank.
I'm writing a letter tomorrow to Big Lots corporate office on behalf of all the wonderful employees who work at my sketchy Big Lots to say what wonderful employees they have working and tolling away in the Union Park, Orlando location.
It actually made me think of what distracted me from the get go. The (older than me) man in front of me in line was buying something and pulled out his cell to call his wife before purchasing it, to make sure it was the right thing. He looked at the girl ringing him up and said "You gotta make sure the wife's okay with it...you know what I mean?"
She didn't miss a beat.
She very politely said, with a smile "No sir, I don't. I'm not married and even if I was, am not a lesbian."
BEST LINE EVER!!!
Good people are everywhere, you just have to look for them...even in a sketchy part of town.
I'll never shop at a Big Lots other than this one.
(update) :
I went to the store today and bought a huge bouquet of flowers. I drove back to Big Lots and took them inside. I strolled back to the 'reduced items' in the kitchen section and picked up a really cute, tall glass carafe for two bucks. I stuffed the bouquet in it and headed back to the register to purchase the vase. I passed a young female employee who was also there the day I left my server book.
I asked if she remembered me being in there the other day (we'd spoken while I was shopping) she kinda cocked her head like she wasn't sure but when I pulled my server book out and said I'd left it that day, she brightly smiled and said "Oh yeah! Our manager, Dennis saved it for you."
I asked if Dennis happened to be there?
He was.
I told the girl I'd brought the flowers as a Thank You.
For Pete's sake, you would have thought Ed McMahon walked in with a life sized check for a million dollars.
The girl called another female employee over and said "Go get Dennis, He ain't gonna believe this!" She added "He's married, just wait til he goes home with those flowers; his wife will think he's cheating on her!"
I told her the flowers were for everyone and should just keep them on the service desk to enjoy.
I was at the check out paying for the vase when I heard someone saying over the P.A. system "We need Dennis to the front register, now!"
Wherever Dennis was in the store... most probably was shaking his head, thinking "What's wrong now?"
I've never seen a group of employees more excited by a fifteen dollar bunch of flowers.
Dennis showed up just as I finished paying and told him I was the person (idiot) who had left her wallet and just wanted to thank them all for being so honest. Also told him I was going to write to Big Lots corporate and let them know what an outstanding crew they had in Union Park.
The guy was super nice. As I went to leave, he extended his hand as a gesture of thanks.
What the Hey?
He's thanking me for being an idiot? (I appreciated even more his not pointing out the fact)
I shook his hand and said "Especially in these days and time, is few and far between to meet honest and respectable people. You have a solid crew of folks working for you and wanted to let you all know I truly appreciate it.
Here's the thing...
They saved me but instead...acted as if "I" was the hero?
Best life lesson I've learned in a while.
Pretty much guarantee this Big Lots has my business as long as we live in our temp rental house and may even make the ride to visit when we move to our forever home.
I'm pretty sure, am more educated and make more money than most of the employees working there...but they are wonderful people.
Being a wonderful person is what life is all about.
I may not be a wonderful person but certainly aspire to be one day.
People helping people.
People being honest.
People appreciating being appreciated.
Once again, am one lucky person and blessed beyond belief.
Think of the entire picture and scheme of your life...and make yourself an important part of it.
I needed a friend the other day after losing my wallet and those friends at Big Lots "Called on me."
The value of life and goodness isn't monetarily measured but measured by how good a person you actually are.
Dashing off my letter to Big Lots corporate tomorrow and hoping somehow in someway, makes a difference for the people who made a positive difference for me.
Til next time and with restored faith in humanity, COTTON
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